Targets of Alleged Plot Vow to Stand Firm Against Hate

A day after an alleged plot was uncovered to bomb a black church and assassinate prominent African-Americans and Jews, some of those targeted were reassessing their security and vowing to remain steadfast in their work rather than succumbing to fear.

One of those allegedly targeted, Danny Bakewell, president of Los Angeles’ Brotherhood Crusade, said the alleged plot “will not dissuade me from my agenda of advancing the cause of African-Americans and all people of goodwill.”

The Rev. Cecil Murray, senior minister at First African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was the prime target of the alleged plot, said his congregation will not surrender to those who hate.

“We must rise or we make God look bad,” he said. “Only 3% to 5% are the haters. But the other 97% often get so cowed that we don’t stand our ground. If we just stand, we’ll be left standing.”

Even as these community leaders were expressing relief that the alleged plot by white supremacists was uncovered, they recognized that it could have led to disastrous consequences had it succeeded.

“There would have been a violent reaction. There’s no doubt about it,” Murray said, noting that there are irrational elements in every segment of Los Angeles society. “I think a race war has been going on for 300 years in this country.” The plotters, he added, wanted to take it to a higher level.

Reaction to a bombing and assassinations would have made what happened during last year’s riots “look like a Sunday school picnic,” said Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack.

“I hope this very shocking incident will serve as a wake-up call for the residents of Los Angeles--for those individuals who would like to pretend that we don’t have a serious problem of racism and hate in our city,” said Mack, who also was identified as a target in the plot. “We have a lot of work to do.”

One of the defendants accused in this plot is suspected of having thrown a pipe bomb at Temple Beth David in Westminster; the bomb failed to explode. The temple’s rabbi, Michael Mayersohn said he was not certain why he or his synagogue might have been targeted. But he maintained that he is “not going to change who I am and how I present myself because of the hatred and bigotry of others. That is what they would want us to do.”

Bakewell said it is important that the community remain calm and “not allow racist people like this to provoke us into violent behavior. That is exactly what they want.”

Murray said he has seen no indications that the community will be “anything but calm. The important thing in all cases of injustice is process. I think black folks erupt when process breaks down. I have no indication that there will be anything other than orderly process.”

He said Los Angeles has been given a unique opportunity to be a model of racial coexistence to the world. The best way to take advantage of that opportunity “is simply for the people of goodwill to bring the same determination to the intense arena of human relations as the people of ill will. Every single person of conscience has to accept himself or herself as a committee of one, and let’s get on it.”

Mayersohn said that “in all of this kind of bigotry, it’s not because of anything one does, it is because of who one is. It’s not directed at the actions of the victims, it is directed at their identity.”

He said the alleged plot “is a reminder that there are always people in society who harbor hatred or bigotry toward anyone who maintains a distinct identity--Jewish, black, whatever. It shows that we have to be vigilant.”

FBI agents warned Murray two weeks ago that he and his church had been targeted, but he said he was surprised by the extent of the alleged plot. Authorities were reluctant to give him details of the scheme, he said, for fear that any leak would jeopardize an undercover agent who had infiltrated the hate groups.

Rap star Eazy-E also was targeted, and his manager was outraged Friday that he received no warning.

“I think that it’s real scary when the federal authorities pick and choose and decide among themselves who they feel is worth being warned about an obviously legitimate death threat,” said Jerry Heller, Eazy-E’s personal manager.

He said that neither he, his client, nor anyone representing Eazy-E’s group, N.W.A, was notified by federal agents that their lives might be in danger.

“Probably nothing would have made them happier than to be rid of Eazy-E and have the guy who did it go to jail for it,” Heller added. “They’d have been rid of two thorns in their side at the same time.”

Eazy-E, whose real name is Eric Wright, has generated considerable criticism with some N.W.A recordings, including the 1989 song, “F--- Tha Police,” which accused police of mistreating minorities and warned of violent retaliation.

Milt Ahlerich, assistant director of the FBI office of public affairs, wrote a letter to Los Angeles-based Priority Records, distributors of N.W.A recordings, saying that 78 law enforcement officers were “feloniously slain in the line of duty in 1988” and arguing that “recordings such as the one from N.W.A are both degrading and discouraging to these brave, dedicated officers.”

Earlier this year, the rapper was roundly criticized by fellow rappers for defending Theodore J. Briseno, one of the Los Angeles police officers charged with violating Rodney G. King’s civil rights in a federal trial. He was labeled a sellout for insisting that Briseno was innocent.

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith, said his organization was familiar with all the suspects.

“We have been aware of them for years,” Bernstein said. “They are in our files and we’ve been trying to keep track of what they did.”

Bernstein said many of those arrested have been accused of attacking or threatening people in the past.

“There’s nothing really that makes them any different than all the other skinheads and extremists in the area,” he said. “They are all extremely violent.”